Monday, December 27, 2010

So I got this hat for Christmas. It's grey, jersey on the outside fleece on the inside. It has a face like raccoon, and ears too. It also covers my ears and tapers into these brades on each side. It keeps my head warm, and looks awesome too.

Remember cup phones? Well, I don't think I ever actually did them as a kid. Maybe I did? I don't remember. But, apparently the sound travels through the string and is amplified through the cup right? Like a phone.

Well, I was sitting on my bed, playing with the brades (which have tassel ends) and I could hear the touch of my fingertips like I was rubbing my ears! You should read that last sentence again for emphasis. I'd retype it but I'm using my phone and I'm too lazy.

Oh the wonders.

P.s. Cordyceps fungi.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

sssssslimy

A fluke is a parasitic flat worm, known scientifically as Trematoda. Most flukes are parasites mollusks and vertebrates. A snail is a mollusc. Some people use snail slime as cosmetic creams to reduce wrinkles and clear scars..

That's....terrible.

Anyway the life cycle of some parasites is just unbelievable. So many things have to happen at such specific moments in order for the parasite to survive. Like the bird fluke. The parasite finds a bird host, grows and produces eggs which will eventually end up in the birds poop. These eggs have to be swallowed by a snail. Let me repeat that, in order for the parasite to live they have to be swallowed by a snail. I guess this happens...often? Then it grows, and I'm guessing the snail has to be eaten by another bird in order for the cycle to continue.






Wednesday, November 17, 2010

ACERVUS__ weaving final

I don't know if I've ever been so excited with a final as I am with the outcome of my weaving final. I guess since I literally spent SO much TIME and resources on it...ahhhh all so very worth it.

I just took some pictures of it, though I need to get it professionally photographed..actually I have other pieces I need to get photographed too..hmmm Gabby hurry and get home.

Artist Statement:

"Acervus" is about accumulation. In Latin, the word acervus means a heap or a mass; these things exist because of a build-up of various smaller parts; humans are essentially the same. As humans living each moment, we are constantly coming in contact with different sensory experiences. All of these experiences; the people, places, and information that enter into our lives, no matter the longevity or the positivity/negativity of the thing, each of these experiences will affect us and contribute to our lives in some way, at some point. We come across very significant events, like the forming of a lifelong friendship or a new spiritual belief, and insignificant events, like stepping on a piece of bubble gum barefoot or overhearing a random conversation about bananas. Both the significant and insignificant instances carry with them an impact that adds a layer to the structure of your life. Even if the experience or information is denied, the seed has been planted and it will contribute. We are all accumulations.
I have woven a 15 inch by 180 inch piece of cloth that has two nine inch holes evenly spaced in the center, out of hand spun raw tassar silk, fuzzy white mohair, and beige wool to represent this thought. It is a wearable piece that is made to be comfortable in both warm climates (as a vest around the arms), or in cold climates (as a scarf or a wrap). The cloth is made long so that it will always drag the ground. I plan to wear the piece to many places that I travel; it will eventually accumulate the things that follow my path. In a sense, the cloth will never be completely finished, but always morphing and building, just as we do as humans.

Now, first I will show the process images I took with my phonnnne:


The skein of mohair/wool that I had to make into a ball.
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THE BALL: I actually like making yarn balls..
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Geoffry the tumor.
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Geoffry the tumor at the end...
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BAHHHHh the BIRTH!
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now...to share the love:

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BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh I'm happy.

The only thing is that I think the bottom is a little too square and thick, but I think once it's been worn and drug around it will get looser and possibly taper more? hm we shall see. I'm going to post updates on where and when I wear it and what happens. I'm excited.

:D

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

readyyyyy GO:

songs about home. what is home? where is home? people on bikes. leaves. berries that I picked yesterday. painting my toenails pink. hair. makeup. dressing up. dressing down. naked. lichen. bugs. ants. lateralus. bears. fur. wool. yarn. silk. worms. caterpillars. slugs. snails. Paintbrush Canyon. Jake's Shadow Mountain Nipples. Heather, wave to yourself. fallen trees. hiking fast. sweat. smelly. body. skin. moist. feathers. owl. sound. who cooks for you, who cooks for you two, little tiny vases, paint, hair hair hair.

train of thought.
you are.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

black coffee

I've discovered that black coffee is better than coffee with cream.

Even though its clearing up outside now, and the blue sky is starting to peak through the grey clouds; it was dreary this morning. The light is cool and clean feeling. I makes colors look very separate and bold. i think. So to procrastinate I decided to take really close up pictures of my face.

Nose bumps and nose fuzzies:

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Mouths are interesting. Especially lips. ESPECIALLY tongues. There's this artist who does these mouth/tongue/spit bubble drawings using colored pencils. She puts these mouths on things like chicken bodies and...other random things. AND THEY ARE AMAZING. But, I can't remember her name or find her anywhere on the internet. So...if you see something like this. LET ME KNOW!!?

Also, have you ever sat in front of a mirror and just moved and rolled your tongue around? Do it...its interesting.

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Lip wrinkles and a string of spit:

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Monday, November 1, 2010

It's crunch time, like carrots.

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I realized my entire dinner was orange. How day-after-festive.

I wanted to post two of my weaving samples I did last Tuesday.

The weave structure of this one is Rose Path, but you can't tell because my wefts are too large. But that's not the exciting part. The exciting part is that I wove it with newspaper and microwaved-POTATO skin- cubes on a string. :)

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They got really wrinkly and leathery. ...they also taste like burnt flavorless potato chips, and smell of potato. But the even cooler thing is, is that there was no waste! The byproduct was tasty mashed potatoes and broccoli!

Continuing on that path of not wasting is my Double Weave structure. I used grey thread and raw wool/Jamie hair blend yarn, and stuffed the pockets with loose Jamie hair! And, this is a side note, but I really LOVE the smell of my old hair. I hadn't washed it in about 3 days and I think I had been swimming in some Wyoming body of water before I cut it. So it smells of dirty sweaty Wyoming amazingness. It's not stinky I promise. It's great! mmm nostalgia.

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also,
This picture:

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Now to crunch. Repeat Pattern sketches of CAPPADOCIA, Turkey!!!!!!!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

I'm going to a bluegrass festival this weekend. in the woods.

This, my friends, is the tacky sweater vest that I started in Wyoming. :) I had a great time working on it. It's also where most of my money went. mmmmmm pretty yarn. The colors are all inspired by the Wyoming landscape and what I experienced. A lot of the back colors comes from both Yellowstone (Artist Point) and looking close at the white bark pine trees. Once I got to doing to front and needed more yarn I realized that I didn't have the main colors of the mountainous landscape as a whole! The fresh amazing blues and purples of the mountains, the greeeeeeens of the pine trees and the SAGE! Oh I miss the sage and the smell of pine sap. yum. I wish I had some of that under my nose.
Also, note to the knitter: guage of yarn DOES matter. The front came out smaller because all of the yarn I used was smaller and I didn't use a different size needle to compensate. oops.
None the less...YAY:


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I miss you Wyoming. I love you everyone.
life is good.

Friday, October 15, 2010

weave. wove. woveded. weavies. weaves. weave.

Today I made a mini loom.

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(I get my vein-y feet from my mom by the way.)

Then I wove a mini landscape piece. :)

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I'm excited to further develop this. I have IDEAS!

Also, my mom is very talented:

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And the other day while I was working on the floor looms in class, I realized that I don't need hair, because I can brush and untangle warp all my life :)
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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Saturday, October 9, 2010

finding things.

So, I found the pages of a book I made freshman year in my Computer Applications class. It was about the "body of work" I had at that point.
I thought they were interestinggggggggggggggg. hey g's look really cool consecutively.
gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

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This was the cover page. They each had writing on them. But...that's lost.

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In my opinion. This is the best one. ^Get it?

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If you look closely at dryer sheets. They look really awesome. Just sayin. Felt.


Thursday, September 30, 2010

filled with fungi

Well hello Fungi.

I finally made it out to Skidaway today, and what a day it was. This trip followed a morning of wonderous insight and proposed opportunities. Super inspired; and of course Skidaway only added to this.

While in Wy all summer, because the climate is so dry there, I wasn't presented with many a mushroom. (Except on my last hike in Death Canyon...which I'll get around to posting something from that great day...one day).

It was overcast and misty, the sky could have fallen on my at any moment, but I was headed in anyway. It was nice because everything was damp from the earlier rain...which means everything was much more vibrant. Everything looks better when it's wet. So,I walked into the woods and was SLAPPED in the face with the smell of sour (in a good way?) moist salt and FUNGUS. all over!

I took over 150 pictures today...hey it happens...

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This was actually taken on my way out. Hey Mother Nature, I'm likeing this Renaissance composition...You know, with the triangle and all. yeah...

Before I get into the glorious world of fungi, I want to post a few other things I experienced today. Mostly just sweet sweet instances. ah :)

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Like this. :) mmm I realize the importance of looking UP. Not just forward.

Also, on a side note while I'm thinking about it. The scariest thing ever is getting overly excited about something over there on that dead tree. So you go close to it to examine it and take a picture and as you start to stand up straight, still amazed, you realize that your HEAD WAS 6 INCHES FROM A SPIDER'S WEB. shit. that sucks. That's happened to me so many times. Then you get fascinated by it and have a spider photo shoot. :)...except I didn't do that today....anyway.

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I don't think I'll ever get over this. Towering over me are huge oak trees with their limbs spread open and wide, decked and draped in Spanish Moss. My face bathing in the trickling fragmented sun rays that just touched all over the long hanging moss.

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It's like they're playing Ring Around the Rosie...in slow motion.

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So I don't know if I fully understand what's going on here. The spider web is holding rain. what?

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Why did the boy throw the butter out of the window?

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Hello fiber student! I'm interested in you. ;)

Now for the infamous tree bark segment which will seg-way right into the FUNgiiii section YEAH

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Oh you'd like to see complementary colors in nature you say? here you go sir. (image NOT manipulated. btw...)

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Papa Tree bends, his bark wrinkles. Oh so gracefully.

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Check out that color. Just look at her. She's ready for a tea party don't you think? So elegant.

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Oh oh OH so much going on! This reminds me of barnacles. Check out that blast of slices framing those baby wrinkles.

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I mean..... Sometime's im just overwhelmed by how great something is...that I don't even want to begin to comment or describe it. This is one of those moments. dkfjsdkjf;adsj LOOK AT THAT


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Excuse me Sir, You ordered the Fungi Sampler correct?

Now begins the Fuuuuuun. gi. So, I decided that instead of just admiring these great beauties of the world, I should really start to educate myself on what I'm looking at. So I'm attempting to identify what I can with what I have. Here we go.

I'm most certain that These next fellas are trametes versicolor, common name: Turkey Tail.

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These guys were EVERYWHERE! They are a type of fungi called polypore. NOW I know what to call them.

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They like dead and decomposing trees.

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You'd think, or at least I'd think, that to touch they'd feel thin, dry, and flaky. Like a dried leaf. WRONG. They're cold, moist, leathery, and fleshy feeling. Sooooooo good.

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I think if they had their own tv show, their theme song would be something along the lines of "We are Family..."

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Next on the trail of identifiable fungi is the tyromyces chioneus. I'm not sure what his common name is. But he, too, is a polypore.

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I'm not 100% sure he is who I say he is. But it's what I think he is.

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I spotted him hanging out all alone, which is what I read these guys like to do.

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And the description of this textured crater-ous epidermis sound correctamundo.


Now this next guy.... could easily not be who I say he is. There are a few images online that look similar and some that look completely different. The only way to be sure would be to do a spore print. And that's not going to happen. So take this "with a grain of salt." Ladies and Gentleman, gyroporus purpurinus He'd be considered a bolete. :)

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:)

For the next guys...unfortunately at the moment, I am unable to identify them. But, none the less, they do exist.

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A group of yellow gilled mushrooms. :)

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A fungus on a fungus.

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velvet-y

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yes please.

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We'll just call this one Tina Turner.
But on a different note....DO YOU SEE HOW INSANE THIS IS?!?!?!?! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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Dear favorite (above), I am silently freaking out. I love you. a lot.

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Ball of lichen^

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Heron?


good day.